One Biden Month Topped Trump's Entire Border Year

Remember when "border crisis" was a daily headline? The Department of Homeland Security just put a number on how far things have moved.

In a release dated Oct. 16, DHS announced that fiscal year 2026, which ran from Oct. 1, 2025 through Sept. 30, 2026, was the lowest fiscal year for border crossings in American history. According to DHS and Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol recorded 98,708 apprehensions along the southwest border for the full year. DHS says total encounters nationwide came to 379,243, the lowest annual figure the agency has ever recorded and 88 percent below fiscal 2023, the peak.

The release says something else that border hawks have been waiting a long time to hear: this was the first fiscal year with no Border Patrol releases at all. September was the 17th consecutive month with zero releases, meaning agents did not release apprehended migrants into the interior. DHS, now led by Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who took over in March, credits President Trump's policies and puts the drop in southwest border apprehensions at 95 percent compared with yearly totals under the Biden administration.

### Putting 98,708 in perspective

Coverage of the release cites Border Patrol's single worst month under Biden as 249,740 apprehensions. Do the math: that is more than two and a half times the entire fiscal 2026 total. One bad month under the last administration was bigger than a whole year under this one.

The monthly trend backs the headline up and does not look like a one-off. The Center for Immigration Studies, citing Border Patrol data, reported 8,870 apprehensions in August and 89,760 for the fiscal year through August. Subtract that from DHS's full-year number and September comes to roughly 8,900, which lines up with an unofficial September figure reported by Breitbart. The House Homeland Security Committee's briefing put the very first month of the fiscal year, October 2025, at 7,989, which it called the lowest start to a fiscal year on record. The arithmetic across independent tallies holds together.

Fiscal 2023, the peak DHS compares against, was the worst on record by CBP's own data: about 2.48 million encounters at the southwest border and more than 3.2 million nationwide, according to a House Homeland Security Committee factsheet drawing on CBP data.

### What the critics say

There are fair caveats. These are preliminary figures compiled and announced by DHS itself, and the release is also a political document, so independent analysts will want to check the final CBP tables when they post. Fewer apprehensions means fewer people being caught, which can mean fewer people trying, and DHS credits deterrence; skeptics may argue other factors play a role. And inside the country, enforcement tactics remain controversial: the Bronx shooting involving ICE agents on Oct. 9 drew heavy scrutiny, and Mullin said ICE would not pause operations in New York.

### The take

Notice what the critics are not arguing: that the numbers are wrong in direction. Nobody serious is claiming the border looks like 2023. The debate has moved from "is there a crisis" to "how do we credit and keep what has worked."

And that is the point. If releases were truly unavoidable, seventeen straight months of zero releases could not exist. They do. Releasing people was a policy choice, and so is not releasing them.

Expect the media to bury this under shutdown fights, polls and Iran headlines. Don't let them. A full fiscal year in which the most-covered crisis of the last administration shrank by 95 percent is the kind of result that decides what voters think of competence. Put it in front of every neighbor who still thinks the border is out of control.